


Are you sure you're okay?

by teakai (clairnovak)



Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-28 23:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3873232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairnovak/pseuds/teakai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jongin couldn't get Taemin's smile out of his head for months. They hadn't kissed again after that but when Taemin started dating Naeun three years later he was secretly glad that there was one first she could never have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Are you sure you're okay?

**Author's Note:**

> the other drabble I wrote for the prompt "are you sure you're okay?" i hope you enjoy!!

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"Maybe?" 

Jongin looked at the boy sitting next to him. Taemin was a mess, face puffy and red from tears that had just barely stopped. Taemin was beautiful even when he cried, that much was true, but Jongin felt his heart twist a little at every sniffle that came from his friend. He reached over and brushed long hair behind the elder's ear. So this was what a broken heart looked like. 

"Jonginnie I just don't get it we were supposed to be forever."

Jongin pulled Taemin into his arms feeling his friend's body heave up and down as he rubbed circles into his back. It felt nice holding him like this but he didn't miss the butterflies that started to emerge in his stomach. Jongin had liked Taemin for a while. Okay maybe longer than a while. Maybe he fell in love when he was ten and Taemin found him on the ground with a bruised elbow and bleeding knee and pulled him up, taking a complete stranger home so that he could play doctor. To this day Jongjn can't look at Hello Kitty band aids without thinking of Taemin's gentle hands cleaning his scrapes and patching him up. 

It could have been then, he muses, or maybe he fell in love when he turned 13 and they shared cake in his room hiding away from the overly affectionate relatives and the friends that he only invited over out of obligation. The butterflies got worse as Jongin recalled how Taemin had told him that there was frosting on his lips and when Jongin failed to lick it off, had leaned over and kissed him gently. Taemin had giggled saying that it hadn't worked nearly as well as in the movies and now they both had blue frosting their lips. Jongin couldn't get Taemin's smile out of his head for months. They hadn't kissed again after that but when Taemin started dating Naeun three years later he was secretly glad that there was one first she could never have. 

Thoughts of Naeun brought him back to the situation at hand. She was the reason Taemin was clinging on to Jongin holding back tears. It had been almost two years since Taemin started dating the pretty girl from the class 1C. They had been perfect for each other and Jongin hated it, despised the fact that he couldn't even hate her out of spite. She was sweet, funny, daring, practically a female version of Taemin. In an alternate universe where Jongin wasn't madly in love with his best friend he may have married her and lived happily ever after. Taemin and Naeun were happy and Jongin was finally moving on when Naeun announced that she was moving away and just like that two years suddenly meant nothing in face of thousands of miles separating them. Tae had called him up sobbing and Jongin barely managed to make out his words. 

"We broke up Nini. It's not really her fault the distance was killing us. She deserves better."

You do too, Jongin wanted to say but he kept quiet instead, offering to come over and be a shoulder to cry on.

Taemin's breathing had slowed and his body relaxed. Jongin laid back on the couch feeling the heavy weight of his friend on his chest as he watched quietly while Taemin drifted off to sleep. 

\---

Lee Taemin had a lot of dreams. When he was little they used to change every week. After hearing how doctors worked tirelessly to help people get better he decided that he too would be a doctor and went to the store down the street buying the only first aid kit left on the shelf with the money he had previously been saving up to buy rocket parts with. (Last week he was going to be a rocket scientist.) The little box was molded from pink plastic and inside was a variety of band aids featuring Hello Kitty characters. Well first aid was still first aid whether it was pink or not and so Taemin set out to find someone to save. He was in luck stumbling upon a pretty boy with tan skin and beautiful brown eyes. He was lying in the ground shoes untied and cuts covering his thin limbs. Taemin reached out a hand pulling up the hurt boy. This was his first customer Taemin thought excitedly. 

"What's you name?" He questioned.

"Jongin"

"All right Jonginnie I'm Taemin and I'm gonna be a doctor want to be my first patient?"

And with that he wrapped his hand around the younger boy's and pulled him down the street towards his house. 

\--- 

Jongin was 13 today and for some reason Taemin didn't understand that made a world of difference. Suddenly he wasn't a child anymore he was a teenager and teenagers did things that Taemin wasn't sure he was ready to think about. Along with the new year came new emotions and suddenly Taemin found himself looking at his friend differently. Had he always been so tall? When had his smile gotten so beautiful? Taemin found himself staring at Jongin's lips completely ignoring what he was saying. 

"You have some blue frosting in your lips."

Jongin's tongue darted out to lick it off but he missed. Maybe he was fed up with watching Jongin flick his tongue across his lips or maybe it was just something in the air but he was suddenly overtaken by the urge to lean in and press his lips to the other boy's. So he did. When he pulled away he tried to laugh it off making a joke about how it worked better in movies. He could have sworn he saw a blush on Jongin's cheeks. As the thumping in his chest increased in speed all he could think was, oh my god do I like my best friend? 

\---

He could tell they were pulling apart. It had been two months since Naeun moved away and the distance was eating at their relationship. They barely talked anymore. Taemin could tell by the way Naeun talked about her new life that she was moving on that was the first sign that things were coming to an end. The second was the recent resurgence of feelings he thought he had buried years ago before he even met Naeun. Suddenly he felt familiar butterflies in his stomach whenever Jongin so much as smiled. He missed Naeun but it wasn't with all his heart now and the guilt was eating at him. 

Earlier that day they had been skyping and he had been distracted barely paying Naeun any mind until her words caught his attention. 

"I think we should break up."

It took a moment for the words to sink in.  
"I can tell you don't love me like you used to Taeminnie, your eyes only really light up when you talk about Jongin these days." Taemin hung his head in shame. 

"And I love you I really do but I find myself looking at other people and wanting to go out and have fun and date. Maybe we weren't meant to be."

"Okay." Taemin choked out. 

"I'm sorry Taeminnie."

"I'm sorry too."

And with that he hung up feeling the first tears begin to fall. He may have been moving on but it still hurt like hell. He saw an incoming message from Naeun.

"Are you okay Tae? You hung up so suddenly."

He ignored the message and instead picked up his phone and dialed up his best friend. 

\---

Jongin runs his hand through long brown hair watching as Taemin slowly closes his eyes and drifts off the sleep. The boy is breathtakingly beautiful as he rests. Leaning down Jongin kisses the top of his head. 

"I love you," he whispers to the boy sleeping in his arms. One day he'll say it to his face but for now Taemin needs a friend so that's what he'll be. 

It comes as a surprise when he feels Taemin moving in his arms burying his face in Jongin's chest. It was so quiet he almost missed it. Maybe he was delusional. Maybe it was just wishful thinking but Jongin could have sworn he heard Taemin murmur, "I love you too Jonginnie."


End file.
